Changed Fate
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: One night during the one month before the third half of the Chunin exam, Jiraiya drunkenly speaks of his greatest regret in life. Two months after the exam is over, Naruto remembers that conversation and does something that would change the fate of the shinobi continent. What repercussions will occur after Naruto decides not to make the same mistake Jiraiya once made?
1. Chapter 1

It was the month before the final Chunin exams, and his new teacher was drunk off his ass.

Somehow, someway, the conversation had gone to the regret Jiraiya had not killing Orochimaru when his betrayal was first known. How he could have saved a lot of lives by killing the damn snake when he had the chance, instead of giving into compassion and hope that his friend might change if given the chance.

"(Hic) I shoulda killed him then. He had always looked down on me for not bein' from a clan and being the deadlast. Always with the fan girls who wanted him, and he didn't even see them. (Hic)."

Naruto had been dragging Jiraiya back to his house with liberal use of clones. It was better than leaving the drunken toad in the forest where he could get eaten.

However something about what Jiraiya said about killing Orochimaru when he first showed his true colors struck a chord with him.

He got the feeling that Jiraiya was a lot like him in many ways. Always trying to be noticed, being ignored by his crush, having to deal with a prick of a teammate who wouldn't give him the time of day that came from a prominent clan.

"If you could go back and do it over, what would you do?" asked Naruto, shifting the drunken sage a bit.

"I don't know. (Hic) But if I had known then what he would become, I would have killed him that day," said Jiraiya in a slur.

"So Orochimaru is your Sasuke to me?" he said.

"(Hic!) Close enough...the similarities are (Hic) too disturbing to think about."

Naruto dumped the sage onto his moth-eaten couch, where the man finally passed out.

Something about the odd conversation bothered Naruto greatly.

Sasuke was a bit too much like the bastard snake, if what Jiraiya said was true. Jiraiya's biggest regret was not killing his former best friend when he had the chance, before Orochimaru became an even bigger threat to everything he loved. What would he do if Sasuke did the same?

* * *

_Two months later, after the Invasion..._

Naruto's mind went back to that night Jiraiya had gotten drunk and mentioned his regrets in not killing the snake. His mind flashed to the look in Sasuke's eyes, at how cold they were.

Sasuke cared nothing for Konoha. In fact sometimes Naruto would swear the boy would enjoy it if the village were to burn.

One by one, the team split off to deal with the Sound 4. Even with the assistance of Gaara and his siblings, it looked to be close.

Suddenly the barrel containing Sasuke broke apart, and he dashed to the Valley of the End. Naruto followed him without hesitating.

"SASUKE! I'M GOING TO BRING YOU BACK ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!"

Sasuke sneered at him, his curse mark clearly active. His Sharingan was active, but despite that, Naruto could only see hate and rage.

Sasuke wasn't going back willingly. He fully planned to kill his brother, no matter what it took.

Once again, Naruto's mind flashed back to that conversation he had with Jiraiya. How his biggest regret was never killing Orochimaru when he had that chance.

And so, Naruto made up his mind. He would give Sasuke one chance to come back, hopefully of his own free will. If not...well, he wasn't going to let this become his biggest regret.

Rasengan clashed with Chidori. The tainted curse mark energy collided with that of the malevolent Kyuubi chakra.

Finally, Naruto had Sasuke pinned.

"I am giving you one last chance, bastard. Either you give up this poisonous dream or else."

"Or else what? What can a weak _Konoha_ shinobi do to the great Uchiha clan? You don't have the courage to kill me!" sneered Sasuke.

Naruto's mind flashed to Jiraiya's face. How he spoke of Orochimaru's betrayal. How hurt the man had become because someone he thought of as his friend had turned into a monster because had never stopped him

"There are many kinds of courage, Uchiha Sasuke. One of them happens to be knowing when you have to let go of the past and what could have been. I will not allow you to become my biggest regret in life. Goodbye, my former comrade," said Naruto quietly.

Naruto formed a single Rasengan with his remaining demonic chakra, and shoved it into Sasuke's chest. The look of shock was something that would haunt him until the end of time.

By the time Kakashi got to Naruto, the boy was crying silently.

"Naruto...what have you done?"

"I did what Jiraiya should have done years ago. Stopped a problem from growing out of control because of weakness," said Naruto.

* * *

Naruto bore the hate filled eyes of the village with practiced ease. Sakura was the worst though.

"He was your best friend! How could you kill him!" she demanded, tears falling from her eyes.

"He wasn't my friend! Open your eyes, you fucking bitch! Sasuke didn't give a damn about this village, or about you! All he every cared about was killing Itachi! He didn't care about who he hurt if it meant killing his fucking brother! He made his choice to leave the village and go to Orochimaru!" snapped Naruto.

"What about all we went through together?!" she demanded, unwilling to look at the truth.

"Wake up and face reality Sakura! I refused to allow Sasuke become my biggest regret in life! He wouldn't rest until he had his revenge!" said Naruto coldly, doing something he should have done years ago.

He bitch slapped the girl, shutting her harridan voice once and for all.

"You asked me to bring Sasuke back! You never said he had to be alive!" said Naruto coldly.

Sakura was in shock at the way he twisted her words against her.

"How could you?! You know how I felt about Sasuke!"

"You and the entire fucking village! Bloodlines die out all the fucking time, yet the other villages don't cry as much as they did for the goddamn Uchiha! The entire village turned him into a traitor with how they coddled him, all because of some damn bloodline! It's like you don't care about the fact he willingly betrayed the village and his team!"

"He was being manipulated!"

"No he wasn't! When has he ever said a kind word to us? When has he ever bothered to socialize with anyone in the entire village, except when we forced him to? Sasuke didn't care about the village, and he didn't care about us! I did what any shinobi would have done, and took out a traitor!" snarled Naruto.

What the two didn't notice was that they were being overheard by quite a few ANBU and loyal shinobi. Many of whom agreed with Naruto.

Yes, Sasuke was the last of a noble clan, but he had willingly gone to Orochimaru. And many were aware of the fact that he was displaying signs of treason for months leading up to this point. The fact Naruto had taken the initiative and killed him before he could become an actual threat to the village had only endeared him to the upper level shinobi, even if his friends were having difficultly understanding his decision.

Naruto gave up his argument, leaving a broken Sakura behind in anger.

* * *

Naruto ate his ramen atop the Fourth Hokage's head, which was one of the few places he could get any peace these days.

Tsunade had saved his ass from the council, as had a majority of the shinobi half, most vocally Tsume Inuzuka, Kiba's mother.

Naruto had done only what he knew needed to be done. And Tsunade knew all too well the sting of betrayal, since she had been Orochimaru's teammate as well.

When Sakura's mother demanded shrilly why he had killed Sasuke in cold blood, Naruto had looked her dead in the eye and told her bluntly that he didn't want Sasuke's survival to be his biggest regret in life.

Tsunade, having spent many a drunken night hearing this same thing from Jiraiya before, had realized what had prompted his decision.

And then Naruto looked at the council and asked why they were so upset about the death of a single bloodline when they had many bloodlines in the village, notably looking directly at Hiashi when he said it.

Hiashi had taken the hint and also asked why they had put so much emphasis on the Uchiha when the clan was clearly unstable.

Even though the Uchiha helped to found Konoha, there was little denying the fact that the clan was a loose cannon, and that bloodlines died off every day. The loss of another couldn't be that hard a blow.

In the end, Naruto was cleared of wrongdoing as Sasuke had clearly been ready to betray the village without hesitation or any help from Orochimaru, who simply gave him a place to go to. The end result was that quite a few civilians had been giving him evil looks and he had ignored them with ease.

Naruto looked up from his ramen, noting someone was behind him.

"Whoever you are, come out now! If you're here to bitch about the traitor, please note I have no issues with punting you off the damn mountain!" said Naruto flatly.

It was Jiraiya.

"Kid, I heard about what you did," he said.

"I had to. All I could think about was the look you had when you said how you should have killed the snake when you had the chance, before he became a bigger threat."

Jiraiya sat down next to Naruto. He brought out a single sake bottle.

"I'm not blaming you Naruto. It was pretty obvious what road Sasuke was heading down, and there is no happy ending waiting for him. At least he was killed by someone who cared about him rather than Orochimaru. Even if it means that there are no loyal Uchiha in the village, at least you took out someone who could have become an even bigger threat if given half a chance. From what I read about his psyche reports, it was only a matter of time before he betrayed the village," said Jiraiya, taking a drink.

He handed Naruto a cup, and wasn't surprised the boy actually drank it instead of handing it back.

"I couldn't let him betray the village. I don't think he even saw me as his friend. All I saw was rage and anger."

Jiraiya poured him another cup. Better to get the kid drunk so he could let it out with someone who knew exactly what he was going through than to keep it all in.

"It seems he was your Orochimaru. Take solace in the fact that he has probably gone to see his parents now," said Jiraiya.

Realizing that he was about out of sake, he had one of the toads bring a barrel of Gamabunta's secret stash. Three cups of that, and Naruto started to talk a bit more. He let out all the pain he had been feeling, all the glares, everything.

And when he finally passed out drunk, Jiraiya took him to his parent's house, which was so heavily sealed that it would take quite a bit of time for anyone to try and kill the kid. More than enough time for him to make anyone reconsider the idea.

A wise move, considering Naruto's apartment was burned down that night, in hopes it would kill him.

* * *

Orochimaru was beyond pissed. He had finally gotten a report on what happened to Sasuke and his Sound 4.

Sasuke and a good portion of those he sent to retrieve him were dead. Only Tayuya had survived, and that because Tsunade had accidentally discovered she was of the Uzumaki clan.

Finding out she still had family left had given all the opening Tsunade needed. Chances were Tayuya would join, if only to be near her kin.

But what really pissed him off was the fact that the Kyuubi container was the one responsible for the death of the Uchiha. And he had died by a Rasengan to the heart. Sasuke remains were burned beyond recognition and buried. To add insult to injury, Jiraiya had the remains placed in a specially sealed container to keep him from bringing the boy back from the dead.

It seemed that the student had learned from his teacher's mistake.

* * *

Itachi, when he learned of his brother's death, immediately went to learn the specifics of what actually happened. Even if it meant dealing with Sasori and Kakuzu.

Between their information networks, he learned the truth of what had happened.

Sasuke had attempted to go to Orochimaru, and a team of Konoha shinobi, all rookies, had gone after him. Many had suffered severe injuries and miraculously there hadn't been any deaths. Suna had assisted them at the last second, since the children of the previous Kazekage had been in the area at the time.

Orochimaru lost his Five best shinobi pawns, and Sasuke's teammate Naruto had killed his former comrade to prevent him from joining up with the Sannin.

According to Sasori, the Kyuubi container's only words on the matter was that he didn't want Sasuke's survival to join Orochimaru to be his biggest regret in life. Of course the puppet master had known what the boy meant by those words.

It wasn't a big secret that Jiraiya's biggest regret was that he hadn't killed Orochimaru when he first betrayed the village. Or that Naruto was now his apprentice.

Itachi, once he had the information he needed, closed his eyes in regret.

He had hoped Sasuke would kill him and restore the honor of the Uchiha. He had thought keeping Danzo from getting his claws on his brother would keep him safe.

While Naruto had ended his brother's life, he had also prevented Sasuke from making the biggest mistake he had ever could. Itachi had defeated Orochimaru and kept the Sharingan from him, but he had gone after Sasuke instead.

And unlike him, Sasuke had agreed to it. Above all else, Orochimaru could not have the Sharingan. It was bad enough he had to kill the clan, but allowing that snake to get the bloodline was a disaster.

Next time he saw Naruto, he was going to get a quiet thank you for preventing that from happening.

* * *

Tsunade had a massive headache, and she fully blamed the Uchiha clan. This had nothing to do with the rivalry that had started with Madara Uchiha and her grandfather. Oh no, this had to do with Naruto's decision to kill Sasuke rather than let him join Orochimaru.

While she fully supported the boy's actions, quite a few didn't. Most of the civilians had worshiped the ground the spoiled brat had walked on, and seeing their reaction to his death pissed her off beyond belief.

It seemed that the story Naruto had told Jiraiya after the man got him drunk off his ass was true, the civilians would like nothing more than to see the boy dead for doing his duty.

About the only good thing that she could see coming out of this mess was the fact she fully planned to release the knowledge Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage and the Princess of Whirlpool. She had learned that Sarutobi had kept it hidden in hopes to protect him from Iwa, but with the way things were going it was more likely that the very people he was trying to protect would kill him first.

And Naruto had displayed the true Will of Fire whenever tested. She saw no reason to keep his true heritage from him any longer than she had to.

She could only hope that his friends would forgive him for killing the Uchiha brat. Even if the boy had deserved it.


	2. Chapter 2

The village was in a divided state.

On one side there were the shinobi, who respected the decision Naruto Uzumaki made to end a threat before it fully developed. While some hated the Kyuubi, the shinobi could at least agree with the fact Naruto had to end a traitor. Quite a few clans stood behind him, fox or no. Particularly the Inuzuka clan, who hated traitors above all else.

On the other side were the civilians. Most, if not all, hated Naruto with a passion because he dared to kill the Uchiha boy. About the only ones who didn't were those who knew Naruto personally and actually cared about him, like Teuchi and Ayame of the ramen stand he frequented.

This was because they had seen the look in Naruto's eyes after his first official kill. They knew he had made a hard choice, and he was still affected by it.

The fact that Naruto's apartment burned down a week after that disastrous mission only confirmed the tales the boy had mentioned about his early childhood...like the birthday mobs.

So Tsunade brought Naruto in, told him about his parents...and with careful timing told the village that he was the son of the Fourth Hokage, with blood test to prove it.

Finding out that they had tried to kill the son of the Fourth Hokage and the last head of the Whirlpool Village had been a strong blow to those who hated Naruto.

Needless to say this news caused quite a bit of trouble for Naruto. Among other things Iwa wasn't pleased to learn the Fourth did in fact have a son.

However that was nothing compared to how the civilians reacted. Within the span of a single month, there were fifteen suicides and several insanity ward admissions.

Iwa was divided in it's own way. On one hand, the son of the hated Fourth Hokage actually existed. On the other, it was pretty clear to anyone who went to Konoha that there was a very likely chance that there would be a brief civil war because of the revelation that the descendant of the Uzumaki and the cousin of the last Senju, not to mention the son of the Fourth Hokage, had killed the last 'loyal' Uchiha who had attempted to defect to a known traitor.

Konoha was torn between the Uchiha and the Senju all over again, even if the boy's only claim to the title was because he was Tsunade's fourth cousin on her grandmother's side.

So all the nations adopted a wait and see approach.

* * *

Jiraiya had had enough of the civilians stupidity. Since he didn't want to leave and chance having the boy do something monumentally foolish, like suicide (not very likely considering his personality, but with the way his other teammate was acting still a possibility) so he decided to continue with his original plan of a three-year training trip _away _from the village.

About the only good news out of this whole mess was that the brat found where his friend's loyalties where.

A week after the death of the Uchiha brat, four different people showed up to cheer up Naruto, two had come the day after and one was still undecided about it. Team Gai were the only ones to back up Naruto after that failed mission to the other genin.

Sakura made no bones about how she felt about the matter. She could care less if Naruto died at this point.

Kiba, Hinata, Shino and Chouji had showed up the first week, and Shikamaru dragged an unsure Ino behind him the next day.

To the surprise of Naruto, Hinata informed him that he had earned the respect of her clan for killing Sasuke when he was fully prepared to turn traitor simply because of power.

That had made Hinata very happy, because it was one step closer to being able to confess to her longtime crush without getting slapped with a Caged Bird Seal for loving the village pariah. Even if he was the newly discovered son of the Fourth Hokage, he was still a notorious prankster and had gotten the entire clan more than once.

When he brought this up to Tsunade, she had agreed without even hesitating. Naruto was still reeling from the news that his father had been the Fourth and the fact he had killed his former teammate.

A change of scenery would do him good. Not to mention give Tsunade a chance to give the civilians something else to think about instead of trying to kill the poor boy.

There had already been three attempts, not including the first one when they burned down his apartment.

Nothing had survived, though Naruto had long since learned never to keep anything he valued there. Anything he actually cared about he hid in a small sealed box at Ichiraku's, which Teuchi kept for him.

This included Naruto's beloved goggles. Too bad they were too bulky for everyday wear, but they still fit.

Since his heritage had come out, Naruto was given his parent's house, which according to the rumors of his new neighbors, was haunted by something. Anyone who tried to rent it suffered mysterious accidents before moving in, and after a while no one wanted to chance their luck.

What they didn't know was that it was a deliberate act of sabotage constructed by Kakashi and allowed by the Third Hokage to keep the Fourth's house the way he had left it for Naruto.

Kakashi occasionally went inside to reminisce and to restock the fridge. And since instant ramen took a long time to go bad, there was a decent supply of it.

Naruto had been keyed into the wards a day after he had been born by Kakashi, so he could enter any time.

Naruto had done so once or twice during the mobs, but he had never known who the house belonged to or why the drunken people had been unable to come into the house until recently.

* * *

"So brat, where do you want to go first?" said Jiraiya.

Naruto had readily agreed to leaving Konoha for a few years, since he was tired of looking over his shoulder. Even though his treatment was slightly better than before (quite a few shinobi had stopped glaring at him and some actually showed him some respect) it was nice to leave the village and the civilians who still couldn't make up their damn minds on whether he was a demon or their new golden boy.

The fox container swore if they tried to act like they had with the Uchiha, he was going to ignore them completely. He had seen how that road had gone, and he didn't want to be like Sasuke.

In an effort to get Naruto over his first official kill, Jiraiya had him talk about Team 7. How they had interacted and so on.

That backfired spectacularly, as Jiraiya's frown grew deeper the more Naruto talked about how bad the teamwork was.

"I can't tell who was the bigger fool... Sarutobi, for allowing the boy's ego to get that bad and placing him with a team he couldn't respect, or Kakashi for trying to force teamwork when it was obvious that you didn't care for each other like a team should. Don't jounin read the Academy reports anymore?"

"Academy reports?" said Naruto.

"The Academy sends the Hokage an assessment each month for every class. Mostly grades and such, but there is also a small commentary about how each student gets along with others. From what I saw about your assessments, you got along with pretty much everyone except the Uchiha fan club and the Uchiha. Placing you on a team with both fan girl with no actual shinobi skills and a boy who had the least positive teamwork assessment of the entire class was just asking for a bad review."

"So...I wouldn't have had to kill Sasuke if someone had actually bothered to do their homework?!" said Naruto angry.

"It sounds like Kakashi didn't think to read the reviews at all. He probably knew you were his sensei's only son, and the council would have put him on the same team as the Uchiha because of his implanted Sharingan. I don't know how the hell Haruno passed, because out of the entire nine who graduated this year, she was the lowest ranked in shinobi skills. All she can do is repeat from the textbook verbatim."

"Verbatim?"

"Word for word," said Jiraiya.

Naruto's scowl was very impressive for a thirteen-going-on-fourteen-year-old.

If Kakashi had bothered to actually _look_ at the assessment reports concerning the student's social skills, then he should have known putting Naruto on a team with Sasuke and one of the Uchiha's fan girls was a phenomenally bad idea.

It was a miracle they had survived the Wave mission with how little they respected each other.

On any other team, the entire mess could have brought them closer together. Instead it drove them further apart, and all it took was a nudge from Orochimaru and the appearance of Itachi to set Sasuke on the path of the deserter.

Naruto didn't know whether he should blame Kakashi for the entire mess or the Snake Sannin.

He decided to wait until he could ask Kakashi whether or not he had bothered to actually _check_ on his new team before he even agreed to train them.

If not, then he was going to put Kakashi in the hospital for an ass-kicking, no questions asked.

"So brat, which nation do you want to visit first?"

"Kumo sounds interesting enough."

Jiraiya weighed the pros and cons of taking the kid into Kumo, which to his knowledge was one of the few villages that actually _tolerated_ the idea of jinchuriki and didn't treat theirs like crap.

Eventually he settled on 'What the hell, why not?' and promptly found the first road to the Land of Lightning.

Perhaps Naruto could make a friend with another demon container and gain another ally like with Gaara. They had already seen the benefits of Naruto's weird ability to convert enemy units into allies.

* * *

Jiraiya began to regret his agreement to take the kid into Kumo one night when he got too drunk and the boy had come in to drag his ass out of the bar.

Unfortunately for Jiraiya, the brat had found the only jounin in the entire village who believed he could rap, and rap well.

Killer Bee had somehow managed to infect his godson with a horrible sense of rhyming which the boy gleefully used on him while he was hungover. The worst part was that the brat had found a pitch to make his pain even worse.

He was almost sure the Raikage was kidding when he offered to let Jiraiya kick his brother in the unmentionables for teaching Naruto to rap...

* * *

Naruto's initial meeting with Yugito Nii didn't go nearly as well. Killer Bee had introduced the two (having quickly proven he wasn't nearly as dense as he appeared, poor rapping skill not included, when he figured out that Naruto was the same kid the Konoha civilians were up in arms about over killing the Uchiha kid) and the two had not gotten along. At all.

Yugito was serious, Naruto was cheerful. Yugito was a professional, Naruto was a half trained shinobi who got through his missions through sheer luck.

The only thing that kept her from strangling her fellow blond was the fact Killer Bee wouldn't shut up about it for months, thus inflicting her with even worse raps than usual and giving her migraines.

Well that and attempting to kill Naruto was like kicking a kitten. The kid was cheerful, but his positive attitude had taken a serious blow by killing his teammate and he was still getting over it.

Fortunately his fellow jinchuriki were helping him get over what Anko had called 'his first kill cherry'.

He had run into Anko while avoiding another mob after his blood made of civilians. She had congratulated him for pissing off Orochimaru and in her words 'becoming a real shinobi', even if his first kill had to be his former teammate and the other refused to speak to him without cussing him out.

He thought she was half-joking when she offered to skewer the 'pink-haired harpy bitch' for her words to him when she learned he had killed the Uchiha brat.

(He would later learn that she hadn't been joking, and that Sakura would learn to regret her obsession with Sasuke since Anko loved to use her for target practice and test subject for any non-lethal techniques. The fact Tsunade refused to train the girl in medical techniques was just icing on the cake.)

* * *

Jiraiya was glad to leave Kumo, since Naruto had gotten along with Killer Bee so well that he practically hung out with the man any chance he had. At least the kid had picked up quite a few tricks, and was very tempted to take up a sword because of how cool Killer Bee looked using one.

The rapping, however, he only used as a torture device whenever Jiraiya was hung over and he had pissed him off.

"Where to next brat?"

"I would say Iwa, but since I found out about my dad..." said Naruto.

"Yeah, not a good idea. We could always hit the Land of Spring. I hear the matinee of that movie you were in is going to debut in two weeks."

"Count me in! I want to see how cool I look on the big screen!" said Naruto.

Even if Sasuke was in that movie as well, he didn't get nearly as much screen time as Naruto had. In fact, he barely had a few parts in it because Naruto had done the most work in helping Koyuki regain her throne.

Come to think of it, Sakura barely did anything either...

* * *

Koyuki was very surprised to see the same blond who restored her faith in humanity and saved her home at the matinee. Then again, she had been hearing rumors that he had to kill a friend recently to prevent him from becoming a missing nin, and that he was actually the son of the deceased Fourth Hokage. Oh, and something about how he was an unofficial Prince of Whirlpool because of his mother.

She didn't put much stock into rumors... at least until the brat's teacher confirmed that a few were really true.

(She was very surprised to find out that he really was the unofficial Prince of Whirlpool because his mother had been the head to the Uzumaki clan of Uzushiokagure. When she learned that, she had broken down laughing hysterically for ten minutes before she recovered and proceeded to tease him endlessly about it for days afterwords.)

Aside from accidentally ruining a plot by some nobles who weren't too happy about the fact Koyuki didn't want to overtake the other nations and was toning down their military might, the movie was actually rather good. And because of his intervention (not to mention having a clone film the entire glacier fight for a quick ryo) Naruto got a free copy of the movie, which wouldn't be on DVD for two months.

Well, that and he also got some new plants that were very expensive to come by back in Konoha. Despite his ADD often kicking in, Naruto was actually a very good gardener. And once he returned to Konoha he fully intended to send his clone army into his mother's garden to clean out the weeds and bring it back to shape...if he could get Ino back on his side so he didn't pull up the wrong thing of course.

Considering she had been undecided about the fact he had killed Sasuke, but still willing to speak to him civilly he put his odds of that at fifty-fifty, at least.

* * *

"Where to next brat?" said Jiraiya.

He didn't know why, but he had the weirdest feeling traveling with Naruto was going to be an experience in itself. Everywhere he went, something weird happened that drew them in like the kid to a ramen stand.

Already he had befriended the Raikage's brother (who Jiraiya suspected was a Jinchuriki like that Yugito girl, who he warned about the Akatsuki) and stopped a plot against the new Daimyo of Spring country.

He would be cursing the kid's luck if it wasn't for the fact that had they not gone to Spring, he wouldn't have gotten Koyuki-hime to agree to act in his _Icha Icha_ movie as the lead role...provided he got someone to actually proofread the script without the nose bleeds obscuring the pages.

As it turned out, Naruto could be bribed with an all-you-can-eat ramen meal, which was actually cheaper than paying for blood pills and hospital bills like the last three editors he had.

It was because the brat agreed to edit the more obvious errors (namely some grammar and major spelling problems) that Jiraiya accidentally learned the boy was slightly dyslexic and needed help reading.

Considering this problem should have been corrected back when Naruto was still a student, it did explain quite a bit about his poor test grades...the rest was laid at the feet of the instructors, who obviously hated the kid because of the fox.

So on the way through the Land of Water, Jiraiya had Naruto abuse his clones so the kid could learn how to read without the words jumping around the pages.

Apparently no one had ever told the kid that shadow clones transferred memories to the original. Jiraiya cheerfully used that to his advantage as he got the kid started on basic seals and calligraphy.

Naruto's revenge for forcing him to read more was his new favorite torture method, courtesy of Bee. Every time Jiraiya got drunk, he would rap off-key, poorly rhyming and at just the right frequency to cause massive pain to anyone with a hangover.

On the plus side, Naruto no longer tended to focus on the fact he had killed one of his teammates. Instead he focused on how to make Jiraiya miserable.


	3. Chapter 3

As it turned out, their little training trip took them through Rain for one reason or another.

Normally this would be a bad thing, except for a few facts.

One, the only people liable to recognize Naruto as the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki were currently bounty hunting in order to get paid this month, and therefore out of the village.

Two, the greedy miser Kakuzu (currently partnerless) was out bounty hunting as well, and therefore was unaware that the Son of the Fourth (which had a hefty bounty on his head even before Iwa knew who he was) was in Rain.

And Three, Konan had run into Jiraiya on accident while Naruto was making his life hell thanks to yet another hangover. Jiraiya recognized her, but was unwilling to fight at all with how badly his head was murdering him and the two instead opted to reminiscence about old times.

After the Toad got over the shock that Nagato and Konan were actually _alive_ anyway.

* * *

Nagato was currently in a fake body, seeing as how his wasn't exactly up to dealing with the everyday world. Jiraiya didn't care, he was just glad that they were still alive...and that Naruto had stopped rapping.

Said blond was currently chatting with Konan about origami, since he had found it interesting.

"Why didn't you contact me?" said Jiraiya.

"To be fair, it was on our list of priorities, just at the bottom," said Nagato sheepishly.

"What of Yahiko?"

"Dead. By Hanzo, among others."

"Others?"

"ROOT is still active. We are fairly certain Danzo had something to do with Yahiko's death, but we were never able to prove it."

Jiraiya growled, but not at Nagato.

He was going to deal with Danzo when he got back.

"So are the rumors true that the last 'loyal' Uchiha are dead?" asked Nagato.

"Gaki over there killed him with a Rasengan to the chest. He said he didn't want Sasuke to be his biggest regret in life... though I'm fairly sure he got that from when I had gotten drunk off my ass during the last Chunin exams in Konoha and the subject somehow came up."

"By the way...what was the deal with the horrible rhyming?" asked Nagato, curious.

The blond seemed to be causing Jiraiya great pain, and it was almost painful to listen to the horrible lyrics.

Naruto, who overheard that particular question, snickered.

"It's his own damn fault. He keeps ditching me to go to brothels and peek on women, so I get back by copying Bee's horrible rhyming sense whenever he's got a hangover. I can get him to do almost anything with it, just so I stop."

Konan glared at the peeking bit.

"And here I was hoping it was a coincidence that your name happened to be on those _Icha Icha _books..." she growled.

She hated them, because they made women look bad and they were so poorly written.

It didn't escape her notice that the blond was currently cheering her onto impending violence...though she did have to do a doubletake when he turned into a buxom blond female with pigtails.

The kid snickered at her "WTF" look she was giving him...though she decided to focus on the fact Nagato was staring at the kid...and had a nosebleed...

_Two beatdowns later and numerous papercuts..._

Konan wiped her hands clean of the blood as Jiraiya and Nagato groaned painfully on the floor.

"Konan-nee-chan, you are awesome!" said Naruto. He was male again, though that still didn't stop her from giving him a _look_.

"And what, exactly, was the deal with that henge?"

"My own patent pending jutsu, the Oiroke no Jutsu! Guaranteed to knock out any perverts and distract any enemy within seconds. For closet perverts, I add shadow clones to create the Harem Jutsu!"

Konan looked him in the eye.

"And you've never once used this to infiltrate the women's bathrooms or feel yourself up? Don't think I didn't notice that henge was solid."

"Are you kidding? If I tried that I would get my ass kicked worse than they did! I only use this to prank people... I once even got the Third Hokage with this!"

"Just so long as you don't try to exploit women with it, I'll let it slide."

"Nah, I prefer to use this to bribe the Pervy Sage for more training... Sometimes it's the only way to actually get his attention."

Konan smiled, as if that thought amused her.

* * *

Jiraiya still couldn't believe Naruto had gotten on the good side of the very people who were trying to capture him and steal the demon he had. Then again Nagato and Konan weren't the ones interested in the demons, but rather a mysterious third party who wasn't in the village at the moment.

Konan had given the kid a scroll on simple origami, and the promise to actually answer him if he wrote.

Considering Jiraiya had sworn to send Danzo their way in relatively alive condition so they could kill him personally (with the agreement Tsunade and Jiraiya were allowed to watch/help if need be) chances were rather good that Nagato wouldn't attack Konoha.

Whether this mystery third party intervened and attacked, well that was still up to debate.

All Nagato could tell them was that he went by the name of Tobi and had a split personality, one of which was even more annoying than Naruto at his loudest.

(Konan had great fun listening to the two of them holding their heads in their hands while Naruto used Bee's rapping to give them massive migraines. She had ear plugs so she didn't have to hear the evil that was poor rhyming.)

"Where to next brat?"

This was quickly becoming a habit. Normally Jiraiya would dictate where they would go, but he had noticed a bizarre pattern with Naruto's choice in destination.

Everywhere they went, something weird happened and he always ended up with something leaving the area. And, by a weird coincidence, Jiraiya usually end up drunk, in some pain because of poor rhyming, and not chased out by a mob of angry females while he spied on them.

Oh, and Naruto was slowly overcoming years of crappy teachers (barring Iruka, but pretty much all the others) and half-assed training by Kakashi.

Jiraiya was already in the mood to shove his next book up the scarecrow's ass for his piss-poor handling of the Uchiha brat and absolutely horrible teaching method.

You don't force teamwork, you try to give them a way to work together first. An excellent ANBU does not always a teacher make.

And in Kakashi's case, Jiraiya had already sent Tsunade the recommendation that the man be permanently taken off the jounin sensei roster. He just didn't understand children at all. Let alone know how to instruct them on becoming ninja.

The two made their way to Hoshigakure, home of the Star Chakra.

* * *

_**In Konoha...**_

Tsunade looked at her new apprentices. She had gone over the current genin graduates and found two likely candidates.

Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga were both wondering why the new Hokage had chosen them to begin her new medic program.

Ino was a natural at poisons and antidotes. Hinata had the best chakra control of the group, and her reserves were easily higher than the Haruno girl, who had recently been apprenticed to another medic nin since Tsunade didn't want anything to do with her.

Because of her infatuation with the Uchiha boy and her reaction to his death at Naruto's hands, the ANBU were watching her very closely. It didn't help that Sakura barely qualified as a kunoichi, and Tsunade had ordered her to be arrested at the first sign of treason.

The fact Sakura had yet to pick up the fact she was being watched by very junior ANBU was not helping her case, since she should have easily spotted a few of her tails.

She was considered an outcast in the shinobi ranks, since she was more civilian than shinobi.

"Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuga. You two were chosen out of four rookies to kick start the new medic program. Ino, you were picked because of your brilliance with new poison concoctions and counter agents. Hinata, you displayed the best chakra control and reserves of your age, and your Byakugan could be invaluable while healing complex injuries."

What Tsunade didn't tell them was that the fact they were still willing to be friends with Naruto after what happened with Sasuke had worked in their favor considerably. As had Naruto's request she take on Hinata, since he had seen the signs of abuse and didn't know what else to do about it at the time.

Tenten had also been considered, but Tsunade had pointed her in the direction of Uzuki Yuugao, the lover of the late Hayate Gekko, since the girl had no interest in becoming a medic but had all of signs of becoming a natural weapons mistress.

She looked at Ino. While the girl was a former Uchiha fan girl, she at least took her training seriously, which was more than could be said of Sakura.

"Ino, I'm going to put Shizune in charge of you. She can help you with your creations and the practical applications of senbon. Once you have the basics down, I'll be sending you to train with Anko Mitrashi, who is one of our best poison experts."

Ino had heard of Anko, particularly from Sakura who seemed to take offense that she wasn't nearly as angry at Naruto for killing Sasuke. Ino was currently trying to figure out if it was worth the headache of being Haruno's friend, as she had been increasingly more violent and irrational of late.

Shikamaru had to restrain her from hitting Kiba three days ago for some imagined slight.

Of course Ino could tell it wasn't because he had done something wrong, but because he had reminded her of Naruto. Simply mentioning her fellow blond's name put the girl into a bloodthirsty rage.

The only reason Sakura had yet to undergo a Yamanaka Mental Evaluation (which meant they would look inside her head for any signs of mental instability) was because the girl had displayed almost all the signs of a split personality, which was dangerous for a mind jumper like the Yamanaka clan to deal with head on.

Ino's reports of a second, more vocal voice in Sakura's head during the preliminary rounds of the failed Chunin Exam did not help matters. Considering how Sakura was acting these days, she was counting her blessings that she had only been kicked out of Sakura's head instead of being ripped to shreds.

"Hinata, you are going to work with me. I have noticed reports from your fellow genin about your herbal concoctions, and I was impressed with the sample we were given. We are going to augment your Jyuken with some supplemental taijutsu training and see what we can come up with," said Tsunade.

Hiashi had not been pleased when he heard Tsunade was training his daughter. Fortunately she was from a prominent clan and was the Hokage. So he couldn't complain.

* * *

_In Sunagakure..._

Gaara was watching Naruto torment Jiraiya with amusement.

"Naruto, you have the weirdest luck."

"Why thank you!"

"So did you really kill the Uchiha?" asked Temari.

Naruto flinched.

"Good riddance. That kid was a complete ass and anyone with half a brain could tell he hated everyone," said Temari flatly.

"Agreed," said Gaara.

Jiraiya was currently signing Kankuro's book collection...he had almost the entire _Icha Icha_ set.

"So when did you start rapping?" asked Temari.

"I ran into this jounin in Kumo... He's come up with a new way to torture people by rapping without actually rhyming! You could see people crying every time he did it! And the sheer pranking value of using it on people with hangovers is hilarious!" said Naruto gleefully.

Gaara snickered with him.

Temari looked curious.

"Does it work on the non morning people?" she asked.

Naruto nodded eagerly. Temari gained an evil look on her face.

Kankuro wasn't a morning person...quite the opposite in fact. He loathed mornings and he would sometimes _growl_ at Gaara before he had his coffee. And that was BEFORE the seal was fixed.

Temari grinned evilly.

"Think he has any CDs I could buy?"

"I could always ask next time I'm in the area," said Naruto matching her grin.

Jiraiya felt a shiver go down his spine at the trio's evil cackling.

* * *

_In Konoha..._

Anko looked at the Yamanaka girl with interest. Despite being a former fan girl (and still the princess of gossip among the kunoichi ranks, with her mother the undisputed queen) she was still rather weak.

However, Ino Yamanaka had gotten past her crush on the Uchiha, and she was willing to give Naruto a chance when she learned he had killed Sasuke.

It was more than the little Haruno bitch had done.

"So... You want to become a real kunoichi instead of some useless brat on the field? You're going to have to work hard at it, and I can tell you right now any diets are going right out the window," said Anko.

Ino nodded.

"Shizune-sensei got me off that silly diet when she explained what continuing it would do to my body. I would rather not be a walking skeleton thanks. As for training... well, I've been wanting a real workout for months, but Asuma-sensei usually tightens up our forms before playing shogi with Shikamaru."

"Bah, still more than Kakashi ever did. Well I'm glad you're ready for a real workout, because now that you've cleared Shizune in use of senbon, the kiddy gloves are off. I'm going to wear you ragged and then we'll work on poisons. You ready girlie?" she asked.

"Hai, Anko-sensei!" said Ino proudly.

Hinata dodged the boulders with ease. She had been training for months and she had gotten quite good.

Her father had been very surprised when she abandoned her Gentle Fist training and had beaten one of the Hyuuga Elders during a spar.

Tsunade hadn't discouraged the girl's gentle demeanor, and had instead redirected it to a more constructive source, namely healing patients. Hinata's gentle ways were often very good at healing people, even if overcoming her reluctance to hurt others had been a trial and a half.

Tsunade had taken her time with that, and instead focused on building up Hinata's reserves and strength while improving her medical knowledge.

When Tsunade learned of her crush on Naruto, she had grinned evilly (which scared Hinata until Tsunade explained that she finally had something to blackmail the brat with) and had decided to improve the girl's confidence so she could finally confess to the rather thickheaded blond boy.

Shizune almost pitied how Naruto would fair when Tsunade got done with Hinata. Aside from an entirely new wardrobe (Tsunade was blunt and had no shame in the female body, and when she learned of Hinata's trouble with clothes shopping had taken her and Kurenai out on a shopping spree. Ino had tagged along since she had a good eye for color coordination and knew what the latest fashions were.) she was getting a makeover the day Naruto came back.

Ino had promised to take pictures for Tsunade so they could have a good laugh at Naruto's expense.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto blinked when he recognized Itachi in the hot spring. Kisame wasn't anywhere nearby and he was in too good a mood to spoil it by running from the Uchiha.

It did worry him that it took Itachi five-point-five seconds to actually _recognize_ him. Was it possible the teen was half blind?

Since Itachi didn't want to make a ruckus, he used Tsukiyomi on Naruto. That was when things got very, very weird.

"Naruto Uzumaki... I suppose I should thank you for killing Sasuke before he even came close to Orochimaru."

"HUH?!"

Naruto was so confused/surprised by this turn of events that had Itachi hit him over the head with a club it wouldn't have rattled his brain any more. He could have hit him with another genjutsu and captured him at this point.

"Wait, so you're not pissed I killed Sasuke?!"

"Considering the alternative was allowing him to join Orochimaru of his own free will and ruin everything I had set up, yes," said Itachi flatly.

"My head hurts... Could you explain what the hell is going on?"

"I suppose there's no reason to hide it anymore. The Uchiha clan were planning a takeover of the Hokage's seat because they were pissed that they weren't getting enough power. I disagreed with this because I didn't want my home wrecked, so I acted as spy for the Third and his three idiots. I was _supposed_ to only kill those in on the actual plan, but someone went in behind me and killed those I left unconscious under genjutsu. I barely managed to keep Sasuke from being killed by him."

"Wait a minute... Are you telling me that you _weren't_ a traitor, but an undercover spy this entire freaking time?! What the hell was up with getting duck butt to try to kill you then?!" said Naruto.

"I wanted him to have some closure and restore the honor of the clan. Hell, the only reason we were even _in_ Konoha after the exams was because I wanted to remind Danzo to keep his hands off my brother!"

"And yet everything backfired spectacularly because of Orochimaru and the fact that between your messed up genjutsu and the civilians, Sasuke closed himself from any human contact and focused solely on killing you. Yeah, real brilliant," said Naruto sarcastically.

"This coming from the village idiot who never noticed that the Hyuuga heiress had a crush on him and stalked him practically everywhere?" snarked Itachi.

"Wait, what?"

"I'm not going to help Tsunade's betting problem, and something tells me you'll find out when you return to Konoha."

"Whatever... In the meantime...poker?" said Naruto.

Itachi didn't know _how_ that kid got a deck of cards in his genjutsu, but considering this was likely the only time he would be able to relax for a while and he hadn't had a friendly game in years, he wasn't going to push his sanity down again.

* * *

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KEEP ON WINNING?! FOR KAMI'S SAKE, THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE MY GENJUTSU! I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHEAT IN HERE!"complained Itachi.

Naruto had beaten Itachi at poker fifty times. In a row. And had gotten royal flushes at least ten times.

The end result was that now Naruto owned Itachi's first-born.

"On an unrelated note, did you know summons all share the same dimension with each other?"

"Really? I assumed they all had a separate world depending on species needs," said Itachi interested.

"Nope. According to Gamakichi, they have an entire world full of summons, but it's divided like the Elemental Countries. Apparently that's how Gamabunta is able to make his stash...he has a trade agreement with the Monkey summons who grow the best rice."

Itachi sweatdropped.

Then he started coughing up blood. This was the third time this happened, so Naruto wasn't nearly as panicked as before.

Since Itachi was really deep cover, Naruto was going to send a copy of his symptoms and bloodwork to Tsunade in hopes for a cure.

He had finally recognized the boy as the same ANBU Weasel (someone had fun making a pun on his name...) who had saved him from quite a few mobs, so naturally the boy didn't want Itachi to die.

Plus Itachi was kinda fun to be around once you got to know him.

Itachi looked up, realized his Tsukiyomi was about over, and stretched.

"We have about five hours left. Want to spar instead?"

"Hell yes! Jiraiya keeps making me learn calligraphy and won't teach me any jutsu until I get seals right!"

Itachi chuckled. Well at least he could do something for the boy...he had a few wind jutsu he had copied but had little use for.

For four hours Itachi trained Naruto in wind jutsu, which he managed to get the hang of at a rather startling rate. When the last hour approached, they just chatted for a while until the genjutsu broke on its own.

Itachi coughed up a little blood and quickly left the hot spring before it got into the water. Naruto sunk a little deeper into the spring because he had noticed someone with blue skin coming out of the room.

"Yo Itachi! You feeling alright?"

"...I may have spent too long in the spring."

"How hot is the water?"

"About boiling. I wouldn't recommend staying in too long," said Itachi.

"Damn. Good thing there's another spring about fifteen feet from this one. I'll go soak in that one for a while before we go eat out."

"I'll take a nap then. Have fun...and for the love of Kami, please don't do the _Jaws_ impersonation until we're about to leave. I don't want to be chased out like Jiraiya when he's caught peeking in the women's bath again like last time."

"...I make no promises."

Naruto left a shadow clone to watch and see whatever the hell Kisame planned to do in a hot spring. Somehow he had the feeling it would be more entertaining to watch that than prepare to run for his life once Jiraiya got caught again.

Kisame was almost positive that someone was watching him. Not that it bothered him.

Finally he turned around and looked.

It was the Kyuubi kid.

"What the hell do you want? This is supposed to be our down time!" he complained. No way in hell was he catching this brat. Not today, on the first break they had in months!

"Nothing. Just curious as to why Itachi told you not to do something in a hot spring."

"What, you mean the part where he told me not to steal the towels of all the men here and get them kicked out for streaking?" said Kisame confused.

"Is that what he meant? That is hilarious!" said Narutwo grinning evilly.

Kisame seemed to have an idea of where this was going, so he asked "How good is your henge?"

"Dude, the Uchiha couldn't see through it even with those stupid red eyes of theirs, and according to the Pervy Sage it's solid enough to feel."

Kisame gave him a shark grin.

"Truce in the name of pranking the hell out of people?"

"SOLD!" and with that, it popped. Naruto was there so quickly it was like he teleported there.

* * *

Itachi's eyebrow twitched. He had taken a nice, two-hour long nap to deal with the headache from using his Tsukiyomi, and when he woke up he found this.

Kisame and Naruto were conspiring together to prank people for no apparent reason. Jiraiya landed near him looking annoyed.

"Dammit, trust the brat's weird ability to make allies out of enemies to come up with _this_," he said sourly.

"This has happened before?" said Itachi, twitching.

"Naruto has the most bizarre ability to make enemies into allies simply by being himself. I've since given up trying to figure out how the hell he does it or even copy it," said Jiraiya flatly. Then he realized Itachi wasn't doing anything to stop his partner.

"Why aren't you trying to kill me?" asked Itachi.

"Meh, who did you think your reports went to when you gave them to the summons clan? I'm Konoha's spymaster for kami's sake. Why aren't you reigning in your partner?"

"I have a massive headache, and it's easier to strangle him once he gets it out of his system. Besides, once I realized he liked to play pranks I told him flatly he could, so long as he paid Kakuzu for damages. I've spent enough time watching Naruto as an ANBU to know when it's better to let things run it's course."

"True. Sake?"

"Let's go eat dinner while those two idiots wear themselves out," said Itachi.

Jiraiya snickered, but didn't disagree.

* * *

"Have fun brat?" asked Jiraiya. Naruto was on the bed groaning from his sugar crash.

Kisame had wanted to see what would happen if Naruto had too much sugar, since the kid was practically an ADHD poster child with ungodly stamina. Plus something told him it would take a lot to get the kid properly drunk.

The results were horrifying.

It was a good thing Naruto had a henge on the entire time, or he would have been banned from the town for all the damage he caused.

Itachi was currently chewing out his partner loudly as his payment for getting drunk and causing so much damage while they left the village behind. Unlike Naruto, Kisame wasn't nearly as good at henge and he had gotten recognized enough that they were kicked out.

About the only reason Jiraiya didn't make Naruto equally as miserable was because he knew without a doubt it would open up a new world of pain called...revenge pranks.

Instead he handed the boy some real food and even though he hated vegetables, he ate the entire thing. His moaning went away after the first bowl, as the food balanced out the sugar he had ingested. Naruto took out a single slip of paper and wrote something on it before handing it to Jiraiya.

"What's this brat?" asked Jiraiya, amused. Naruto signed back in ANBU code (Jiraiya taught him to get him to shut up on morning) **"Read paper first."**

Jiraiya opened it up and his amusement grew.

_'This tag entitles the owner to one get-out-of-hangover-punishment free period, or one peeking session at the women's bath without interruption per tag.'_

"So this is your answer? So long as I do nice things for you like train you properly or help you out after a sugar crash you won't rap or interrupt me while I'm researching?" he asked.

Naruto nodded, still eating.

"How many do I get?"

Naruto pointed at his food, then held up three fingers.

"So every time you have a sugar crash or hangover I get three tags. What about training?"

He held up one, then he swallowed.

"Minimum is one tag. However if I really like it I can go up as much as three. Help me with my shinobi training, and I mean tips that actually _help_ and you get two. Fair?"

"Kid, you have a deal."

If it meant the end of the hangover punishment and the freedom to research without the kid bothering him, then he was willing to work with this 'tag' system.

* * *

_Meanwhile, back in Konoha..._

It was a ROOT agent who first overheard the beginning of trouble. He had no actual name, but Danzo had taken to labeling him Sai. He was returning from a scouting mission that Danzo had him do around the village to prevent another Uchiha incident when he noticed the Haruno girl going into a seedy area.

He was more trained than she was, and she was persona non grata ever since it became clear she was more liability than shinobi, even with her medical training proving she wasn't _entirely_ useless.

Sai followed her quietly, noting the ANBU was changing shifts at the moment. So the girl was relatively unobserved.

It was because of this that he found the base of what appeared to be a rebellion in their midst.

"What's the password?" asked a gruff voice.

"The Kyuubi bastard must die in the name of the Fourth," said Sakura flatly.

The door opened, and Sai quickly found a way in that didn't involve passwords. He sat on one of the beams above the table, and waited.

"Were you followed?" asked their leader.

"Dumbass ANBU were on their shift change. They didn't see me vanish," said Sakura.

"Good. I can't believe those useless fools didn't kill the brat when they had the chance. We have found a new ally in our war against the Kyuubi brat. He doesn't want to be named, but he said he was an ally of the Uchiha clan. He has given us a way to revive Uchiha Sasuke."

"I thought Jiraiya sealed his remains in a barrel to prevent the Edo Tensei?" said Sakura.

"Yes, but this man has a jutsu which would bring his soul back in a new-born infant, complete with Sharingan. We cannot allow that Kyuubi bastard to get away with killing off the last loyal Uchiha," said the leader.

"What do we need?" asked Sakura eagerly. She was willing to wait a few years if it meant having _her_ Sasuke back.

"We need a volunteer for the body. We already have someone willing to perform the jutsu in order to bring his soul back."

"Count me in. I would be glad to bring Sasuke-kun back," purred Sakura.

The man chuckled.

"We had a feeling you would be..."

Sai vanished when someone was about to spot him. He would have to report this to Danzo-sama immediately.

Last Uchiha in the village or not, even Danzo admitted that Uzumaki-Namikaze had done more for the village by killing Sasuke than allowing him to live. Danzo didn't like the fact that the Uchiha boy was a loose cannon who only needed an outlet to defect, whereas Uzumaki was completely loyal and had the ability to convert enemies into allies. A very odd, but extremely useful trick.

"Are you sure of what you heard, Sai?" demanded Danzo.

"Positive Danzo-sama. Haruno appears to be in league with an outside force and seeks to bring Uchiha Sasuke back to life with what I can only assume is a forbidden jutsu."

"This is very troubling. While having the Uchiha brought back to life would be a boon for our forces, the boy was too unstable in life and it's unlikely that his mental condition would improve if he is allowed to return. I am going to send someone in to locate this jutsu they planned to use while you spend the next day off in base. When Uzumaki returns, I will see if we can't place you on whatever team he is on. Perhaps you can assess his condition for me."

"Yes Danzo-sama," said Sai.


End file.
